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4-8 May 2008 ICARDA, Syria International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas telling stories - sharing knowledge International Farmers’ Conference Technology Survey The survey conducted during the conference largely con- firmed our initial assumption that cell phone coverage far outweighs internet access among farmers. However, women in Syria and Jordan rarely have their own phones. In total 46 conference participants responded to the sur- vey, Only about a quarter of the participants have internet access and use email. On the other hand, 71% have ac- cess to mobile phones, half of which can play video. Authors Alessandra Galié, Research Fellow at ICARDA Bernhard Hack, Evaluator at www.RE4D.net Andrea Pape-Christiansen, KM Specialist at ICARDA Stefania Grando, Barley Breeder at ICARDA Salvatore Ceccarelli, Participatory Plant Breeding Specialist Cell phone videos - how to: Farmers were shown how to make short video clips of stories that they could send by mobile phone. In this way, farmers could share their sto- ries and the stories of other participants with friends and neighbors when they returned home. The video to the right explains the process with- out words, suitable for multicultural settings. The Farmers’ Conference that took place in Syria in May 2008 provided a space for over fifty farmers and researchers from nine countries to share their agricul- tural knowledge. It aimed to highlight the potential value of farmers’ knowledge for agricultural research in general and plant breeding in particular arguably contributing to better targeting research outputs. The conference was one of six pilot projects of the CGIAR ICT-KM program Knowledge Sharing in Research. Farmers discussed the issues most important to them and their experiences. Researchers were exposed to the contexts the farmers work in and their problems. The conference also built alliances among farmers and researchers to integrate their diverse expertise and increase the sustainability of agricultural devel- opment. Knowledge Sharing approaches provided a conducive environment and innovative tools to facilitate commu- nication across countries, cultures and genders. Percentage of participants with ICT access How farmers spread knowledge Rouqeia Ibrahim, Farmer “I learned a lot of new things about planting, using fertilizer, harvesting and good practice for keeping seeds. I wrote down everything and will use many of the things I learned in my fields next year.” Stefania Grando, Researcher “The conference achieved its objective of collecting and consolidating farmers knowledge, which will help scientists in better targeting their research to address farmers’ needs. Also, the conference was successful i establishing linkages between national level networks of barley farmers in this six countries.” Mohamed Maatougui, Researcher “In my experience farmers have a lot of good knowledge skills and experience. We can learn a lot from them. The conference gave them central stage to share with each other and also with us, the research community.” Evaluation results The conference enriched the network of farmers and researchers and, thus made it more sustainable. After the conference, the farmers shared the knowledge with others pri- marily by telling stories. Very few showed the website and nobody dis- tributed the cell phone videos available on the website. Key lessons learned The limited internet access and broad band connections of the farmers turned out to be the weak link in the distribution strategy. A different approach for jump-starting the circulation of the cell phone videos should have been adopted to fully exploit the potential of already existing cell phone usage. ICTs potentially facilitate communication and collaboration across distance between farmers and researchers. However, poor farmers’ lack of access to ICTs remains a barrier to ef- fective participation. Gender and age need to be given par- ticular attention, when using ICTs to involve farmers in the re- search process. Monitoring the spread of stories shared via cell phones re- mains a challenge. Beyond asking immediate clients for feedback, there is little evidence to show that these stories are actually traveling via phone but we also learned that orally they are being spread very effectively. Tools used Project Evaluation www.icarda.org/farmersconference Surprisingly, the overall number of connections in the network went up after the conference. Participants made contacts with each other particularly in their own and neigh- boring communities. Many new connec- tions were made be- tween the participants creating a more sus- tainable network. ICARDA’s central role was temporarily re- duced. The Hubs and Spokes model with ICARDA as the central information broker and only go- between was the starting point. Before the conference During the conference After the conference Storytelling The organizers made sure that, both, men and women farmers felt at ease when telling their stories. In villages it’s customary for all to gather round to hear stories and the arrangements for storytelling at the conference followed this tradition. Requests for stories were not prescriptive. Farmers could tell their stories in the way they preferred and share what was important to them. This format meant that farmers could talk about issues and feelings that are often considered too trivial to be addressed at formal con- ferences or not even relevant. Network Mapping Network mapping was used primarily to illustrate a major conference goal: creating direct connections, especially be- tween farmers, to make the network more sustainable. The exercise gave the participants a tactile experience of locating themselves geographically in a network, while at the same time pro- ducing the data for the subsequent so- cial network analysis. Seed and Food Fair A highlight of the conference was a show-and-tell ‘food fair’. Farmers showed their bread, food products and crop varieties, and related how these have evolved to meet local tastes and cultural prefer- ences. This short event was an enormous energizer for the con- ference and a great success with the farmers. Video Quilt The website collects the stories told at the conference.Videos can be streamed online or down- loaded onto mobile phones for sharing.
